


A Future Unwritten

by ominousrum



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Angst, Canon Divergence, Canon Universe, F/M, Fluff and Angst, season 5 spec fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-25
Updated: 2016-03-25
Packaged: 2018-09-25 02:02:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 741
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9797516
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ominousrum/pseuds/ominousrum
Summary: Everyone is prepared to let them have their goodbye, to stand back and let time hang in the air, unhurried. Any hell beasts or gods will be held at bay for as long as they need.





	

**Author's Note:**

> for disnerdfighter on tumblr because she likes pain

Emma knows what’s right, knows what choice she has to make. Maybe it’s part of the good her parents ensured she would have when they banished the potential for evil out of her. Maybe it’s a byproduct of knowing ( _always knowing_ ) the wrong decisions because the world didn’t seem to stop ever letting her down when she was young and used to fight so desperately to be a part of it. 

Either way, she knew. The right decisions are the ones that tear through her and rip her peace away. In her experience, the right decisions hurt the most. 

_She has to let him go._

***

 

They talked both understanding the words the other couldn’t speak. He couldn’t ask her to let him go, not completely; only hinting at the shoulds not the could have beens. She couldn’t ask him to stay, not when a true happy ending is on his horizon. Not when his life has come full circle and his brother is finally at his side.

She gives a small nod when Liam says they should all go to the bridge where souls move on and it’s decided. 

_She needs to let him go._

***

 

Everyone is prepared to let them have their goodbye, to stand back and let time hang in the air, unhurried. Any hell beasts or gods will be held at bay for as long as they need.

Emma drinks in the sight of him, determined to keep all versions of him in her mind. Even the exhausted, broken man whose hair has grown far too long. 

“Do you remember what you told me in Neverland?” She watches his eyes flicker nervously as he waits for her to continue. “How you were going to win my heart?” 

“Aye.” A soft, familiar sorrow sets into his features and it radiates down to her bones.  

“I was terrified that you would end up being right, that you would win it.”

His jaw clenches, the tension practically dripping out of him as he stands trying to keep his shoulders square. 

“And you did. You won it. And now I’m terrified because you’re taking a part of it with you and I’ll never see you again.” Her smiles are shaky, shuddering breath a last bastion against the sobs that want to claim her. 

A thousand unsaid declarations of love are burning into her through his gaze, but he stays silent.

“So even without splitting my heart, it’s happening.” She closes the distance between them, lingering inches from his face, voice more hoarse whisper than anything. “Take care of it. As long as you’re happy I’ll know my heart is safe.”

He crushes her to him then, nose buried deep in her hair, arms wound so tight she can barely breathe. She slips the ring in her hand into his pocket  imperceptibly. 

“You have mine, my love,” Killian whispers, voice thick with emotion. “You _are_ my heart, every bit of it.”

***

 

Emma couldn’t bear to look at Henry when she had to make the right decision all those years ago. She finds she can’t bear to look now, when her other true love is leaving; forever apart from her. She manages to splay her palm wide in the direction of her family behind her, willing them to keep their distance in this moment. 

The heat of the brilliant light flashes orange against her closed eyelids as the ache inside her grows large enough to consume her. She waits for the glow to fade to black before she falls to her knees, weeping, hands balling into fists. 

She refuses to open her eyes when she feels someone sit down beside her. She isn’t ready to see a world without him in it yet. Maybe if she keeps her eyes shut, it won’t be true. 

A hand touches her face gently (so, _so_ gently) to wipe her tears away despite fresh ones rushing to replace them. 

“Our story isn’t finished yet, love,” his voice lilts into her ears as her mind shakes the impossibility of it away. She forces her eyes open at last.

“Killian?” His name falls from her lips as he smiles wide.  

“We have a future I need to see,” his eyes are wet as he moves to kiss her, drowning in the present that is her lips. 

“On that note, I believe this belongs to you.”

An enormous smile splits across her face as he places the ring in her palm.


End file.
